Perhaps another way to think about it is to acknowledge with the Scriptures ( John 10:28-30) that nothing we can do is so bad that God is going to drop us or take away our salvation. There are always two ways, the way of life and the way of death. Of course, another way of saying this is, “Once saved, always saved.” But can we really believe this? If someone really wants nothing to do with Jesus, does God simply ignore that and force them to spend eternity with him? That view doesn’t seem to square with the story the Scriptures are telling. He said multiple times throughout his story that he didn’t want to give up Christianity. If we take him at his word-and I think we should-he was a genuine, committed Christian who was wrestling with a lot of doubts. If you believe it’s impossible to lose your salvation, then what do you say when someone walks away from Jesus? You have to say they must never have been a Christian but this clearly doesn’t fit the bill for Rhett, who wasn’t play-acting at Christianity. Some Christians say things like this because they are concerned about eternal security. He pleads, “Please don’t reduce me to a theological footnote.” Rhett goes on to argue that we sometimes say things like this because we have to fit people into our theological system. One way Christians have responded is to say, “Oh, well they must never really have been a Christian in the first place.” As Rhett tells his story, he graciously asks us not to say things like this-because it is “dismissive.” “Jesus was as real to me as he possibly could be,” he says. What do we do when someone we thought was a committed Christian suddenly says they’re not anymore? When a high-profile Christian walks away from the faith, it causes significant confusion and doubt within the Christian community-one may think of other Christians, like pastor/author Joshua Harris and Hillsong United worship leader Marty Sampson, who have also recently announced that they are no longer Christians. What I would like to do instead is to suggest a few important lessons that I think we can learn from Rhett’s “anti-testimony.” In this post, I’m not going to respond to those specific objections, since many other Christians have already done that. Among many other things, Rhett cites evidence for evolution and the unbelievability of the Bible as major factors in why he walked away from the Christian faith.
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